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Thursday, September 11, 2008

Mount Baker, WA & SOB's: Scooters of Bellingham

The SOB's (www.Scootersofbellingham.org) were planning a weekday ride to scale Mount Baker. Originally it was to be on Sept 15th, but moved it up one week to accomodate David who was moving to Conneticut. This was to be his last weekend in Bellingham and his last ride (for now) with the SOB's. It was a beautiful sunny warm day and co-incidently I had booked this day off so I was free to tag along.

I got off to a late start and it takes an hour to get to Bellingham from Vancouver (not counting the time at the US border crossing) so I could not get to the starting point but as everyone was raving about the Rocket Donuts I think that I missed some food action and will have to make a mental note to visit Rocket Donuts sometime by myself.

As there is basically only one road Mount Baker Highway to get there, I figured that by the time I got closer I would be seeing some 2 wheeled machines soon. But I didn't until I got to the top at Artist's Point;

Turns out to be a lot of old Indians and Harleys in the parking lot. It was the first day of their Rally. These riders are part of the AMCA: Antique Motorcycle Club of America, Inc. I checked their website and they did have a rally to Mt Baker from Sept 8th to 10th with headquarters somewhere in California. there were bikes from all over the country.

The the scooters started showing up.

and about time as I was getting hungry and was looking forward to our group lunch further down the hill in Glacier, WA

of course, with such beautiful views in all directions, we had to find a place in the middle of the parking lot surrounded by cars.

Scooters of Bellingham (SOB's) are a vintage scooter club, mostly Vespas and a Kymco or two

our ride leader TOM (on the left)

this is Robert, the Reverend, notice he is not standing behind his bike

in a bit after taking some group pictures we headed down the mountain

one of the best things about scootering is the social interaction with other scooterists

Almost forgot, scooters don't do too bad on gravel roads either, with those "large" tires

Whoa, what's going on here ? why is Robert walking around by himself in the forest

someone suggested a short HIKE to see the Nooksak river

Robert, the Rev has a habit of running out of gas, but this time it wasn't him

I thought this scene a little ironic as the Sign for Mt Baker is pointing at the mountain

I had a great time today, better than working for a living too bad it had to end. We went our separate ways with happy memories. The SOB's are great people and I am glad to know them. I actually want to be an SOB but you have to live in Bellingham.